Monday, June 30, 2014

A cabinet maker from Sterling, Virginia, was feeling chipper last week when the Virginia Lottery presented him with a $1 million ceremonial check.

Walt Plummer's ticket matched the five main numbers in the Friday, June 13, Mega Millions drawing. He purchased the ticket from his local 7-Eleven store, and returned on Wednesday, June 25, to receive his prize from Virginia Lottery Executive Director Paula Otto.

Plummer has had a few prior wins, but never more than a few dollars. He believed he'd won a similar amount until he had the store clerk check his ticket.

"Now don’t have a heart attack," the store clerk warned, and then told him he was the owner of a $1 million ticket.

Residents in the small town of Tuatapere in Southland, New Zealand, had cause to celebrate last week when Lotto tickets went on sale in the town for the first time in 19 years.

The town's former Lotto outlet, at the local service station, was removed in 1995. Since then purchasing a New Zealand Lotto ticket has necessitated a trip to the next town. All that changed on Tuesday, June 24, 2014, when Tuatapere Four Square supermarket owners Aaron and Lisa Challis began selling tickets in their store.

The couple decided to bring Lotto back to the town after comments placed in their suggestion box indicated it was what their customers wanted.

"We are really excited by the response of our Lotto," Aaron said. "The locals have grabbed it with both hands and we have already seen some small collects by our customers."

Kentucky is not the first US state to seek the UK Lottery organizer's help. Camelot has already advised the Texas, Massachusetts, and California state lotteries and has been working with the New York lottery since January this year.

Camelot has been running the UK lottery since its creation in 1994 and their present license allows them to continue doing so until 2023.

In April the Camelot Group announced its intention to create a new division called Camelot Global that will provide consultancy and private management services to lotteries all over the world, but political resistance and regulatory issues have already thwarted the company's past attempts to attain licenses to run US state lotteries.

Last year Camelot spent 12 months negotiating for the license to run the Pennsylvania State Lottery, but the deal fell through, potentially losing Camelot around $1.7 billion in profits.

Camelot Global Managing Director Alex Kovach said: "We are a relatively new entrant into the US market—a highly-regulated, political market that needs to be viewed and approached on a state-by-state basis."

Sunday, June 29, 2014

New cars and houses are a popular purchasing choice with lottery winners, but rancher Tony Newbill has more unusual plans for his US Powerball prize.

"I’m putting it into cows," Newbill said. "We have about 100 head of cattle, and our family has been doing this for a long time."

Newbill's ticket matched four main numbers and the Powerball in the June 11, 2014, drawing. Normally this would have secured a $10,000 prize, but Newbill added the Power Play option to his ticket, and the Power Play number was 5, so his prize was multiplied accordingly. After state and federal taxes have been milked from the winnings he will have $34,000 to invest in his herd. He also plans to install a new irrigation system and do some infrastructure upgrades on his 160 acre ranch in Powell Butte, Oregon.

Newbill bought his winning ticket from Bandits Cafe in Redmond when he popped in for something to eat. He found out his ticket was a winner the following morning while enjoying his first coffee of the day.

"Of course, a little coffee got all over me after I saw what was starting to look like a win," Newbill admitted. "It was a shocker, it really was."

The win has also proved to be somewhat of an inspiration to the rancher's sister.

"She has been in a pool with people in the office," Newbill explained, "and she said, 'You gave us hope.'"

The Next US Powerball drawing is on Wednesday, July 2, 2014. The estimated jackpot is $90 million.

Five lucky players share last night's £5.2 million UK National Lottery Lotto jackpot. Each ticket-holder will receive £1,045,504.

The winning UK Lotto numbers drawn on Saturday, June 28, 2014 were 08, 12, 28, 30, 43, and 49. The bonus number was 42.

Eight players matched five winning numbers and the bonus ball to win second tier prizes of £42,670, and 276 players won £1,050 for matching five numbers. A further £8,749,933 was distributed in smaller prizes to lower tier winners.

UK National Lottery Lotto drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Wednesday, July 2, 2014, Lotto drawing has an estimated jackpot of £2.1 million.

A man from of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, fell foul of the law last week when it was discovered he'd altered a scratch- lottery ticket and attempted to claim a large prize.

According to the police report filed on June 19, 2014, Michael Allen Shaske, 45, presented the altered ticket and tried to obtain a $20,000 payout. When he was unable to cash it in Tahlequah Shaske drove to Oklahoma City and tried his luck at the Oklahoma Lottery Commission headquarters.

MSgt. Gary Knight from the Oklahoma City Police Department said: "Well he was doing everything he could to get arrested for this. Clearly it was not a good winning ticket."

Saturday, June 28, 2014

An unemployed man from San Francisco visited the California State Lottery office earlier this week and claimed last month's $70M SuperLotto Plus jackpot, four weeks after he won the mammoth prize. He told lottery officials he hadn't presented the ticket earlier because he'd needed time to decide on the best use for the money.

Eurico Chin, 41, became a millionaire on Saturday, May 24, 2014, when the numbers on his ticket matched all five main numbers and the Mega Number, but the life-changing win involved a double helping of good luck because Chin never intended to buy a ticket.

Chin was out wandering the streets of San Francisco when he passed a Safeway store and suddenly thought to himself: "Why not? I'm already here; I might as well buy one."

He bought five, all of them Quick Pick tickets, and one of them changed his life.

Chin said: "I was watching the news and I saw that the winner was on Noriega [street] and I remembered that I bought the ticket on Noriega. I thought to myself, 'well, it might be me.'"

When he went online and checked the winning numbers against those on his ticket he discovered there was no 'might' about it. Chin was so shocked he rechecked the numbers several times. He has been researching his options ever since and put off claiming his prize until Monday, June 23.

Chin said he is considering buying a house or a new car, but plans to invest most of the money.

A Grand Rapids resident has become the first person to win the $2 million top prize in the Michigan Lottery's new "$2,000,000 CA$H" game.

Denise Skonieczny purchased her ticket from a local Meijer gas station and got busy scratching as soon as she returned to her car. She was shocked to learn her $30 ticket had given her such a massive return on her investment.

"I was so nervous because I had to go back to work and leave the ticket in my car," Skonieczny said. "I didn’t really believe that I had won until I called the lottery office and had the ticket verified."

Skonieczny chose to take her winnings as a one-off lump-sum payment of $1.2 million and received $897, 000, after state and federal taxes. She is now planning a trip to Disney World and has her heart set on a new car and a new home.

Two first prizes remain in the $2,000,000 CA$H game. Other prizes range from $30 to $10,000.

There was a second Euromillions rollover last night, so players can figure on a bigger prize on Tuesday night.

The Euromillions numbers drawn on Friday, June 27, 2014 were 31, 33, 34, 39, and 45. The Lucky Stars were 02 and 10.

The jackpot may have proved evasive, but one lucky ticket holder, secured a €1,474,696 prize for matching five main numbers and one Lucky Star. That's a sizable win, but it's a far cry from the €24,831,312 that would have been pulled in by a second Lucky Star.

Three players missed out on Lucky Stars, but were awarded third tier prizes of €163,855 for matching five main numbers. Thirty-nine players won €6,302 for matching four main numbers and two lucky stars, and 1,990,164 Euromillions players were awarded smaller prizes from the lower tiers.

The next Euromillions drawing is on Tuesday, July 1, 2014, and has an estimated jackpot of €31 million (£19.9 million).

Friday, June 27, 2014

A lottery player from Calgary, Canada, who told her daughter she would be allowed to adopt a dog if they had a big win, may have to make good on the doggy deal because she won CAD$5 million in the June 7, 2014, Canada Lotto 6/49 draw.

Maureen Fielding bought her winning ticket from the Superstore at Country Hills Boulevard in Calgary just hours before the draw. She normally sticks to the same set of numbers, but made a snap decision to buy an additional Quick Pick ticket as well.

"It was surreal," Fielding said. "I still cannot believe it."

Her daughter couldn't believe it either because the win could herald the patter of four little feet in the family home.

"My daughter reminded me that I had said if I won the lottery, I would buy her a laptop, a new car and a dog," Fielding said.

She ran her ticket through a self-checker the day after the draw and a "big number" flashed onto the display.

"I said to the clerk, 'I think this is a big winner,' and she asked, 'How much?'" Fielding recalled, and the size of the prize surprised the clerk as much the lucky ticket holder. "Her face turned a different color when she checked my ticket, and then the screen went blank," Fielding said.

Fielding told lottery official her first priority is pay off her bills and she may consider buying a new home, but still had an important decision to make.

The third New York Lottery Cash4Life drawing was held on Monday, June 23, 2014, and produced the game's first jackpot win.

The winning ticket was purchased from the 7-Eleven on Bell Boulevard in Bayside and the lucky winner will be set for life because the ticket is worth at least $7 million.

New York Lottery officials are urging the winner to sign the back of the ticket at once and contact them as soon as possible.

The winning Cash4Life numbers drawn on Monday were 05, 16, 21, 33, and 47 The Cash Ball was 04.

Cash4Life is a regional game available exclusively to players in New York and New Jersey. Tickets cost $2 and players need to match all 5 winning numbers and the Cash Ball to win the jackpot. The odds of winning the Cash4Life jackpot are 1 in 21,846,048.

The Arizona Lottery has announced Wednesday's $1.3 million Pick jackpot was won on a ticket purchased from Fry's Food Store on Las Canada Drive in Oro Valley. Lottery officials are eager to meet Arizona's latest big winner, but are still waiting for the ticket holder to come forward.

Lottery representative Karen Bach said: "We look forward to meeting the winner and presenting the check. It is always exciting when there is a top prize winning ticket sold for Arizona's own jackpot game."

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Two US Powerball players from Trenton began legal proceedings against the New Jersey Lottery Commission earlier this week. Salvatore Cambria and Erik Onyango claim they threw away a valuable ticket because the lottery's website had not been updated and was still displaying the numbers from the previous drawing.

According to the lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Trenton on Tuesday, June 24, 2014, Cambria and Onyango bought three tickets for the March 23, 2013, Powerball drawing. One of the tickets matched all five numbers drawn, but failed to match the Powerball.

If the ticket had matched the Powerball it would have secured a share of the $338 million jackpot scooped by Dominican immigrant, Pedro Quezada, but even without the Powerball the ticket was still worth $1 million.

The disgruntled players went to the Lottery commission with their claim earlier this year but were turned away.

"They were told that without the ticket they were not going to pay," attorney Edward Logan said.

Cambria and Onyango have a history of buying each other lottery tickets from the Mahwah 7-11 store. On this occasion Onyango bought three tickets with consecutive numbers and gave the middle one to Cambria.

Onyango checked the numbers on the Lottery's website several minutes after the drawing and relayed them to his friend over the phone. Believing it to worthless, Cambria threw his ticket away.

Logan writes in the lawsuit: "The plaintiffs here may not have produced the winning ticket but have tendered two of the three tickets purchased in immediate succession and can prove that they in fact purchased and possessed the original ticket."

The New Jersey Lottery's Pick-6 Lotto jackpot evaded players for over six months and then, after a dry spell of 53 drawings, the game produced two Big Monday night wins in a row.

On June 16, 2014, one ticket matched all six numbers required to win the $20.1 million jackpot, and another ticket holder successfully matched all six numbers drawn earlier this week.

The lottery is still waiting for both winners to come forward.

Speaking on Tuesday, New Jersey Lottery Executive Director Carole Hedinger said: "Now I can look forward to meeting two new Pick-6 millionaires—the winner from the June 16 drawing and the winner from last night’s drawing. It’s always a thrill to meet the winners whose lives will drastically change by this financial windfall."

Pick-6 drawings are held on Mondays and Thursdays at 19:56 (EDT). Tonight's drawing has an estimated jackpot of $2 million.

No tickets matched the six main numbers necessary to win the £1.9 million jackpot in last night's UK National Lottery Lotto drawing, so the prize will rollover to Friday.

The winning Lotto numbers on Wednesday, June 25, 2014, were 05, 15, 19, 25, 34, and 36. The bonus number was 40.

One ticket holder won £155,710, for matching five winning numbers and the bonus ball, and 137 ticket-holders won £965 for matching five numbers. A further £4,393,434 was distributed in smaller prizes to lower tier winners.

UK National Lottery Lotto drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Saturday, June 28, 2014, Lotto drawing has an estimated jackpot of £5.3 million.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Florida Lottery launches a new game next week. "Lucky Money" will replace the lottery's long-running Mega Money game, which ends on July 1, 2014.

The new Lucky Money game will have a starting jackpot of $500,000 and the prize can roll over until it reaches $2 million. Then, just as in the Mega Money game it replaces, if no tickets match the four main numbers and the Lucky Ball the top prize pool will 'roll down' and increase the value of the lower tier prizes.

Lucky Money will offer players improved overall odds of winning a prize, along with a larger second tier prize than the one available in the present Mega Money game.

Lucky Money drawings will take place Tuesday and Friday nights at 23:15 (Eastern Time). Tickets go on sale July 2, and the first drawing will be held July 4.

UK National Lottery organizers, Camelot, are still searching for the holder of a winning Euromillions Raffle ticket purchased last year in Warwick. Lottery chiefs are so desperate to find the missing winner they recently dressed up a few Camelot representatives in the attire of olde worlde knights and sent dispatched them to Warwick Castle in the hopes of jogging a few memories.

A National Lottery spokesperson stated: "We’re desperate to find this mystery ticket-holder and unite them with their winnings. This amazing prize could really make a huge difference to somebody’s life. With the help of our knights we’re hoping to get people checking their tickets before the ‘knights’ run out and the deadline to claim passes."

The ticket, bearing the selection 'GRN686516' won the £1 million raffle prize on Tuesday, December 31, 2013, and time is fast running out for the ticket holder. If they don't present their ticket by this Sunday (June 29) the prize will be lost.

"Try checking in the pockets of clothing, in wallets, bags and down the back of the sofa for this missing ticket, in fact anywhere where a missing ticket could be hiding," the lottery spokesperson said. "We have the champagne on ice and our fingers crossed that the lucky winner comes forward in time to claim their win."

If the lucky winner fails to come forward before the deadline the prize money, along with all interest earned, will be allocated to National Lottery Good Causes.

A syndicate of workers from the Rolls Royce manufacturing facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, visited the Hoosier Lottery Headquarters on Monday and claimed a $1 million prize.

The 18 workers, who call their syndicate the 'Royal 18', have been playing the lottery together for several years, but Lady Luck seemed oblivious to their endeavors until the weekend when they successfully matched all five of the main numbers in Saturday's US Powerball drawing.

Each player will receive $55,555, before taxes.

"It's not enough to retire, but it's enough to do a little something," said syndicate member Greg Simms.

If the group had matched the Powerball as well they would have scooped Saturday's $60 million Jackpot.

The Winning US Powerball Numbers on Saturday, June 21, 2014, were 05, 06, 37, 41, and 54. The Powerball was 26.

Tonight's US Powerball drawing will be held at 22:59 (Eastern Time). The estimated jackpot is $70 million.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

There were no Euromillions jackpot winners on Tuesday night so the prize will rollover to Friday.

The €15 million jackpot may have eluded players, but three ticket holders won second tier prizes of €312,175 for matching five main numbers and one Lucky Star.

Five players lucked out on Lucky Stars, but matched the five winning numbers necessary to secure third tier wins of €62,435. Forty-three players won €3,629 for matching four main numbers and two lucky stars, and 1,627,461 Euromillions players were awarded smaller prizes from the lower tiers.

The winning Euromillions numbers on Tuesday, June 24, 2014, were 01, 07, 20, 21, and 48. The two Lucky Stars were 04 and 07.

The next Euromillions drawing is on Friday, June 27, 2014. The estimated jackpot is €24 million (£19 million).

A little store in East Peoria, Illinois, is no small contender in the luck department. In fact, the Little Grocery on McKinley Street has sold so many winning lottery tickets its customers now refer to it as "the Lucky Store".

The most recent lucky store winner bought his ticket last week and won £100,000.

Store employees said the winner was a regular customer who visits the store twice a day and always uses his own numbers.

Little Grocery store employee Debbi Inman said every time the store sells a winning ticket it brings more people through the doors.

"When the pots are high a lot of people come in hoping for that big pot," Debbi said. "You want to win and this is the place to do it."

A retiree from Kamloops, British Columbia, had a spot of good luck at the weekend and now has his heart set on a new set of wheels.

Walter Klym has been entering Canada's BC 49 Lotto drawings for a long time with very little luck apart from a few small wins. All that changed at the weekend when his persistence was rewarded with a CAD$ 500,000 win.

"I've been playing BC 49 since it came out and have won a few little amounts like $10. I always play the Extra," Klym said. "I guess I'm still hoping to win the jackpot one day."

Klym bought his lucky ticket from the local Shopper's Drug Mart, on Saturday, June 21, 2014, but never checked his numbers until the following morning when he popped down to Coopers Foods to buy a few groceries. He ran the ticket through the self-checker while he was there and was shocked to see so many zeros light up the display.

"I had to check it again," Klym said. "It started to sink in when the retailer said the terminal had frozen and I would have to call BCLC."

Klym's keen to get behind the wheel of a new car, but before he gets himself revved up an ready to go he and his wife plan to share some the winnings with their children and grandchildren.

BC 49 Lottery drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The next drawing is on Wednesday, June 25, 2014. The estimated jackpot is CAD$ 2 million.

Monday, June 23, 2014

A woman from Manitoba who won a Canada Lotto 649 prize of nearly CAD$7 million earlier this month said the win had an eerie resemblance to a dream she'd had the night before the draw.

Maria Digel said she dreamed she'd won CAD$ 1 million and shared it with her family, but never expected she would soon hold a ticket worth nearly seven times that amount.

Maria has been using the same set of numbers for the past 30 years and they have personal meaning to her because she based them on the date she immigrated to Canada, along with the ages of family members at the time.

Her lucky numbers are 7, 11, 12, 13, 35 and 41. They finally became winning numbers when they matched the Lotto 649 numbers drawn on June 4, 2014.

Remembering the day she was given the good news, Maria said: "I checked it [the ticket]with the girl at the lottery counter and she said, `You've won more than 6 million dollars.' I just felt numb."

Just as her dream predicted, Maria plans to share the money with her family.

"I live a simple life," she said. "I don't need a fancy apartment. I am happy."

Maria isn't the only player who has had an accurate premonition about winning some Lotto 649 loot.

Retiree Dorothy Lahola from Kamloop, British Columbia, had a similar experience in March when she woke up from a dream and heard herself shouting "I'm a winner! I'm a winner!"

One week later she won a guaranteed prize of CAD$ 1 million in the March 8, 2014 drawing.

The Drury Lotto & Superette sold a AUD$ 1 million-winning ticket at the weekend and store owner Store owner, Ketan Patel, was keen to find out the identity of the lucky winner, but his rush to get behind the counter on Monday morning met with disappointment. The Division 1 winner was a no-show.

"Nobody's been in. No one's come forward," Patel said.

The mystery winner was one of five ticket-holders who matched all six winning numbers drawn in Saturday's Australian Lotto drawing.

Patel's store appears to be a lucky venue for lottery ticket purchases.

"We've sold 13 winning first division tickets over 20 years and 62 second division winners. That's not too bad," Patel said.

A US Mega Millions player from San Leandro, California, held a winning ticket for nearly six weeks, but had no idea because she never checked it until last week.

Milandi Almaweri bought her ticket from San Leandro Express Liquors on Friday, May 9, 2014, and successfully matched all five winning Mega Millions numbers drawn later that evening. If she'd matched the bonus number as well she'd have won the $105 million jackpot, but her five numbers were enough to win her a second tier prize of $1 million.

Speaking to California Lottery Officials on Friday, Almaweri said she found winner while checking through a month's worth of tickets.

Last Friday's Mega Millions drawing failed to produce any new millionaires. The biggest winners were the four players who matched four main numbers and the bonus ball and had their $5000 prize increased to $25,000 because they'd added the Megaplier option to their tickets.

The next Mega Millions drawing is on Tuesday, June 24. The estimated jackpot is $25 million.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

A couple from Albany, Australia, who won AUD$ 1.4 million earlier this year have already given away over AUD$ 500,000 to people less fortunate than themselves, but the generous pair are far from done with their good deeds. In a continued effort to help others they have commissioned the building or a special six-bedroom property on the southern coast and plan to open its doors to those in need of a place of sanctuary.

The couple wishes to remain anonymous, but speaking to The Sunday Times earlier this week they said they were no strangers to hard times. In fact, prior to the win their financial situation was so bad they couldn't afford to rent a home so they and their three-year-old son had to live with relatives and often had to borrow money for gas so they could drive round looking for work.

All that changed on Saturday, January 4, 2014, when they matched all six winning numbers in the Australian Lotto drawing and won AUD$ 1,428,571.

Remembering the day their luck took a turn for the better, the wife said: "My husband stood up on the couch and said, 'I've just won the lotto' and we were all looking at him like, 'Yeah, yeah, whatever.'"

Then when they realized he wasn't just trampling over the furniture for a joke the family's emotions got the better of them.

"Everyone had a bit of a cry, especially after it had been a financial struggle for us for years," the wife said.

Turning their back on all thoughts of high-living, the couple bought a second hand car, and a few more cars for family members then, after funding their son's future education, they began using their winnings to help people they met via charity work.

Eight tickets matched the six winning numbers in last night's UK National Lottery Lotto drawing. The jackpot was £3.1 million, but with so many winners taking a share the prizes are relatively low. Each winner will receive £389,998.

The winning lotto numbers drawn on Saturday, June 21, 2014, were 03, 07, 13, 17, 27, and 40. The bonus number was 19.

Sixteen players matched five winning numbers and the bonus ball to win second tier prizes of £11,612 each, and 960 players won £164 for matching five numbers. A further £10,859,250 was distributed in smaller prizes to lower tier winners.

UK National Lottery Lotto drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Wednesday, June 25, 2014, Lotto drawing has an estimated jackpot of £2.1 million.

News has recently emerged from China about a police raid on two print works that were producing counterfeit lottery tickets designed to mimic those used for Hong Kong's popular Mark Six Lottery.

The Foshan municipal public security bureau states the print works in Guangdong Province were shut down on May 28, 2014. Almost 200,000 illegal tickets were seized from the cities of Guangzhou, Foshan and Zhaoqing, and 31 people were arrested.

One of the factory workers admitted the presses had been running for two years and had already printed 78 million tickets with market value of 200 million yuan (USD$ 32,116,670).

Saturday, June 21, 2014

On Tuesday, May 27, 2013, Glenn Eaton popped down to Mikey's Gas Mart in Atlanta, New York, to buy a bottle of Mountain Dew to soother his wife's headache. He purchased a US Mega Millions ticket at the same time. When he returned to Mikey's last Thursday he had his wife Jennifer with him and they were both happily anticipating a bottle of champagne because the Quick Pick ticket had made them millionaires and New York Lottery announcer Yolanda Vega was in town to present the ceremonial check.

Eaton's ticket won a second tier prize of $1 million just hours after he purchased it, but he never thought to check his numbers until the following morning when a roommate told him someone had won a major prize on a ticket purchased from Mikey's Gas Mart.

"I picked up my phone and I picked up my ticket and started reading it," Eaton said. “While I was reading it, my hands started shaking and I told my wife, 'I won!'"

Eaton had made the same announcement a few weeks earlier for a prank and had convinced his family it was true, so this time around Jennifer didn’t believe him, but the joke was on her again because this time it was true.

Eaton opted to take his winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $661,800, after taxes. As for his plans for the money Eaton said: "We plan on buying a house and buying an SUV to lug our kids around to sporting events and wherever they have to go."

A family-run lottery syndicate from County Limerick has come forward to claim half of the €2 million jackpot from last Saturday's National Lottery Ireland Lotto drawing. They have opted to remain anonymous, but told lottery staff they were extra pleased about the win because they bought their ticket on Friday 13th.

"We can’t believe our luck," one of the winners said. "Friday 13th is unlucky for some but for us it turned out to be the complete opposite. It’s unreal! From now on, thirteen will be one of our lucky numbers."

The other half of the jackpot was won by a ticket purchased in County Wexford.

One ticket matched all five main numbers and both lucky stars necessary to scoop Friday's €25 million (£20 million) Euromillions jackpot.

The Euromillions numbers drawn on Friday, June 20, 2014 were 05, 15, 25, 38, and 49. The two Lucky Stars were 01 and 02.

Seven players won second tier prizes of €213,747 for matching five main numbers and one Lucky Star, and eleven players won €45,340 for matching the five main numbers. Fifty-four won €4,617 for matching four main numbers and two lucky stars, and a further 2,389,404 Euromillions players were awarded smaller prizes from the lover tiers.

The next Euromillions drawing is on Tuesday, June 24, 2014. The estimated jackpot is €15 million (£11 million).

Friday, June 20, 2014

A former history teacher from Bradford, West Yorkshire, who stole most of the lottery funds awarded to a local history society appeared in Bradford Crown Court on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, and pleaded guilty to five offences of theft amounting to £8,000 and one of making an article for use in fraud.

The thefts occurred last year while Daniel Moorhouse, 40, was treasurer of Keighley & District Local History Society. The misappropriated funds were part of £9,900 grant awarded in December 2012, by the UK National Lottery's Heritage Lottery Fund. The money was intended to help fund the creation of a police records archive in Keighley Civic Centre.

Stephanie Hancock, prosecuting, told the court members of the society first became suspicious when Moorhouse stopped attending committee meetings and became difficult to contact.

Subsequent bank enquiries revealed five payments, made between February and May 2013, totaling £10,000, had been transferred from the committee's account into Moorhouse's personal account. Due to the trust originally placed in Moorhouse's good character, four of the checks had been counter-signed by the committee secretary. Moorhouse had forged the secretary's signature on the fifth check.

Defending Moorhouse, barrister Stephen Wood, said his client had suffered personal turmoil's that had resulted in alcohol dependency.

After hearing all the evidence Judge Jonathan Rose sentenced Moorhouse to 15 months in prison, suspended for two years. Moorhouse will also have to pay back the £800 within six months, do 180 hours of community service, and be subject to a curfew imposed by an electronic tag.

Twenty Million is a popular figure tonight. The Friday night Euromillions drawing has an estimated jackpot of £20 million (€25 million) and Friday's US Mega Millions jackpot is $20 million.

Be it in pounds or dollars twenty million is a sizeable amount of cash that could make a lot of dreams come true, but $20 million is a mere splash in the ocean by Mega Millions standards and the same can be said for tonight's Euromillions prize.

Last Fridays Euromillions drawing had a jackpot of £109.5 million (€137.3 million) and, just a few weeks ago the May 20, 2014, Mega Millions drawing boasted a jackpot of $149 million, but both games have already offered richer pickings in 2014 and we are only half way into the year.

Police in Paris, Texas, have issued an alert warning local residents to beware of lottery scammers.

In recent weeks several residents have reported receiving calls informing them they have won large lottery prizes, but will need to send a payment to secure release of the funds.

The calls, made from an 876 area code, originate from Jamaica so the Paris Police Department is unable to investigate the matter.

Area Code 876 has a longstanding connection with lottery scams. Victims from many states have already lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"The key thing to remember is that if you didn't enter a lottery, you're not going to win that lottery," said Officer Curtis Garrett. "So be real careful about when they call giving out personal information."

Thursday, June 19, 2014

The Florida Lottery is taking steps to try and protect lottery players from dishonest retailers and store clerks. The move comes after recent investigations revealed some store owners appeared to be beating the odds again and again and claiming numerous large prizes for themselves.

One retailer, who was selling Florida Lottery tickets from seven stores, appeared to be enjoying a particularly lucrative winning streak when he and his mother claimed 47 prizes, each one $1,000 or more, within the space of just three years. All seven stores are now banned from selling Florida Lottery products.

Forty-nine retailers have been suspended from selling tickets or been terminated from the program due to theft and other payment issues, and a new online video campaign is being utilized to encourage players to sign their tickets. Posters bearing the same message will shortly be appearing in lottery ticket selling locations.

Speaking in a video released last week Florida Lottery Secretary Cynthia O’Connell said: "The next time you play, sign every ticket immediately upon purchase. It's the surest way to guarantee you are the designated rightful owner."

The lottery is also reaching out to player via Twitter and a tweet posted on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, urged players to sign their tickets as soon as possible.

'Protect your Florida Lottery tickets by signing your name on the back side upon purchase,' the tweet reads. 'Every ticket, every time!'

No tickets matched the six main numbers necessary to win the £1,792,178 UK National Lottery Lotto jackpot last night so the prize will rollover.

The winning lotto numbers on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, were 10, 11, 18, 23, 26, and 37. The bonus number was 06.

Five players matched five winning numbers and the bonus ball, to win second tier prizes of £28,610, and 126 ticket-holders won £963 for matching five numbers. A further £4,580,806 was distributed in smaller prizes to lower tier winners.

UK National Lottery Lotto drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Saturday, June 21, 2014, Lotto drawing has an estimated jackpot of £5.2 million.

A Lotto winner from County Antrim, Ireland, forfeited their prize earlier this week, but their loss will be someone else's gain because the £116,000 prize has been allocated to National Lottery Good Causes.

The prize was won in December 2013. The claim deadline was 11:00 on Monday, June 16, 2014.

A National Lottery spokesperson said: "We tried very hard to find the ticket-holder and it's a real shame that they have missed out, but there is still one winner —the nation. This money, and all the interest earned over the 180 days, will now go to benefit projects all over the UK funded by The National Lottery."

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Pub landlord Nigel Willetts, 48, cast superstition aside last last Friday and splashed out on £20 worth of lottery tickets and is very glad he did because the decision made him a millionaire.

"I'm not normally very superstitious, but when you realize it is Friday the 13th it is on your mind," the former soldier said. "But I won my fortune on that day and it will always be lucky for me now."

His £1 million Euromillions Raffle win certainly involved a healthy dose of good luck because the odds of winning the prize are 13 million to one.

Willetts, who runs the Bridgend Inn at Bedwas in Wales, was busy working behind the bar so he never got chance to check his ticket until late on Saturday afternoon and was so shocked to discover he'd won a life-changing prize he went to his local Tesco supermarket and had them double-check the ticket.

"I was shaking," Willetts admitted. "I said to the girl 'Can you check this because I'm pretty sure I’m a millionaire now?'"

Once the win had been confirmed the father of four returned to the Bridgend Inn to share the good news.

The celebrations lasted until the early hours of Sunday morning.

"I just wanted all the people I love, my family and friends, around me to share my good fortune," Willetts said. "We kept going until 6’oclock in the morning when I then walked home and tried to take it all in."

Now money is no longer an issue the lucky winner intends to pay off the mortgage so he can own the Bridgend Inn out right.

The first Euromillions draw of the week failed to produce any big winners last night so the €15 million jackpot will rollover to Friday.

The biggest win on Tuesday, June 17, 2014, came from the second tier. One ticket won €1,017,907 for matching the five main numbers and one Lucky star.

Three ticket-holders won €113,100.80 for matching five main numbers, and 47 players won €3,609 for matching four main numbers and two Lucky Stars. A further 1,570,262 players won smaller prizes from the lower tiers.

A couple from Hertfordshire, England, have been able to move their wedding plans forward after they won nearly £800,000 in the UK National Lottery's Lotto drawing on Saturday, June 7, 2014.

Ware resident Lesley Blackman, 40, and her fiancé Matthew McCarthy were manning a car boot sale stall when Lesley checked her numbers using the National Lottery's mobile phone app and discovered she'd won £799,255.

"Matthew and I carried on with our car boot sale but kept sitting down and giggling," Lesley said. "I really couldn’t concentrate for the rest of the day and just kept telling everyone that everything was a pound so I think some bargains were had."

Lesley was one of six players who took a share of the £4.79 million jackpot and her Lotto windfall will allow her to make one of her biggest dreams come true a little sooner than expected.

"We have been planning to get married for a while now with a small gathering of family and friends in Lake Como, Italy, but we weren't able to afford it," Lesley explained. "With this win we’ll still have exactly the same wedding but we can now set a date sooner rather than later. I'm so happy; I can't wait to organize it."

Although she is grateful for the extra cash Lesley, who presently works as an insurance manager, is taking a level-headed approach to her win.

“This is a life changing amount for us, but not a retirement fund, so I think a career change will be on the cards," she said. "Matthew is a tiler and we have always wanted to buy some properties and do them up."

Tuesday night is Euromillions night and tonight's drawing has an estimated jackpot of €15 million. That’s a big come-down from Friday's €135 million prize, but €15 million is still a life-changing amount.

Friday's big-money prize was scooped by a player in Spain and 2014 continues to be a good year for Spanish players because Friday's prize was the sixth jackpot won this year on a Spanish ticket. The winner has yet to come forward, but when they do they will have every excuse to drink a few very large celebratory glasses of sangria.

A New Zealand Lotto player from Wanganui was doubly luck on Saturday, June 14, 2014, when both his tickets won Second Division prizes. His total windfall was NZD$ 32,128. He plans to invest in a motorhome.

The man bought his tickets from Aramoho Mags and Lotto and store owner Garry McElwain and his staff were 'over the moon' when the winner, who is a regular customer, returned to the store on Monday and let them know they had sold two second division winners.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Friday 13th turned out to be a lucky day for a US Mega Millions player in Mount Clemens, Michigan, when they matched the bonus ball along with the five numbers necessary to haul in the $66 million jackpot.

The winning Mega Millions numbers on Friday, June 13, 2014, were 07, 38, 46, 49, and 56. The bonus number was 01.

The winning ticket was sold at Sunny's Amoco gas station and convenience store. Speaking on Saturday, station owner, Sonny Tarhini, stated he was as in the dark as everyone else about the winner's identity, but said he hoped the winner was one of his regular customers.

Mega Millions was not the only game to produce a big winner on Friday. A Euromillions player in Spain also beat the odds by bagging the €135 million jackpot.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Stories about winning lottery tickets being thrown in the trash should be quite rare, but within the space of just four days last week three lottery winners included a little trash talk while sharing tales of their big win.

On Saturday, June 7, 2014, Todd Solarz from Duluth, Minnesota, won USD$ 1 million for matching all five of the winning US Powerball numbers. He claimed his prize on June 12, and admitted to Minnesota Lottery workers he'd come close to throwing his ticket away.

"I always check the Powerball number first and it didn’t match so I didn’t think it was a winner, but then all the other numbers started matching up," Solarz explained.

An Australian Lotto winner who scooped a AUD$ 1 million prize on Wednesday, June 6, also had a trash story to share when she claimed her prize. When she wanted to check her numbers she was unable to find her ticket. She searched the house without luck, finally checked the trash, and discovered her mother had thrown away the ticket by mistake.

That very same day, albeit in a different time zone, a down-and-out Californian man was indulging in a spot of dumpster diving after he witnessed an angry winner tear up a scratch-off ticket. "I don’t need the money," the man said.

Thirty-six-year-old Lorenzo Juarez did need the money, so he retrieved the pieces of ticket from the dumpster and claimed the USD$ 500 prize.

Three tickets matched the six winning numbers in the UK National Lottery Lotto drawing on Saturday, June 14, 2014; so the £3.4 million Lotto jackpot will be split three ways. Each ticket-holder will receive £1,149,241.

The winning lotto numbers were 09, 18, 22, 23,29, and 33. The bonus number 15.

Eight players matched five winning numbers and the bonus ball to win second tier prizes of £34,399 each, and 287 players won £814 for matching five numbers. A further £9,098,810 was distributed in smaller prizes to lower tier winners.

UK National Lottery Lotto drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Wednesday, June 18, 2014, Lotto drawing has an estimated jackpot of £2.1 million.

Andrew
Noble from Oceanside in Nassau County has been finding New York Lottery scratch
of tickets in his birthday cards for the last eighteen years of his life. The
thirty-six-year-old got an especially large birthday surprise this year when
one of the tickets turned out to be worth $1 million.

The elated
birthday boy couldn't believe the gift from his mother's had turned out to be so
generous so he dashed down to the Rip's Cards & Things store.

"I
didn't believe it was for real until the lottery terminal began its trumpeting
fanfare," Noble admitted.

Noble chose
the annuity option and will receive his prize in 20 annual payments of $33,090, after taxes.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

The couple
from Hastings who won half of the NZD$ 26.4 million New Zealand Powerball
jackpot on Saturday, June 7, 2014, were so sure what their first
purchases was going to be they chose their hotel very carefully when they
travelled down to Auckland to claim their prize.

"New
cars are at the top of our list," the husband said. "We're even
staying at a hotel near a dealer so we can start shopping as soon as the
winnings are in our account."

The couple
checked their ticket on Sunday, but waited a few days before making the trip
the claim their prize and kept their AUD$ 13.2 million ticket safely hidden in
a sock drawer.

"It
was really funny reading about the win in the newspaper each morning and
hearing people talking about it around town, knowing all the while that we had
the lucky ticket tucked away at home," the husband said.

The couple
play the same numbers each week, so as soon as he saw the draw results he knew
their ticket was a winner, but he wasn't sure of the size of the prize.

"When
I realized we'd won first division I crossed my fingers, hoping I'd picked the
right Powerball too," he explained. "Lucky for us, I had. I jumped up
and ran through the house yelling 'we've won Lotto.'"

New Zealand
Powerball drawings are held on Saturdays. The June 14, 2014, drawing has an
estimated jackpot of NZD$ 5 million.

A young woman from Western Australia who won AUD$ 1 million in Wednesday's Australia Lotto drawing has claimed her prize, but told lottery staff she'd had to search through the trash to locate her winning ticket.

The search for the ticket began when the woman wanted to check her numbers. She and her mother searched the house without luck. They finally found the ticket in the trash and the woman's mother realized she must have thrown it away by mistake.

"After we double-checked the numbers we just started screaming and then there were lots of tears," the woman said. "The Lotto Gods must have heard me."

The Euromillions Rollovers were halted last night when one lucky player matched all five main numbers and both Lucky Stars and scooped the €137.3 million (£109.6 million) jackpot. That’s an awful lot of cash so someone somewhere has started the weekend on a very good footing.

The winning Euromillions numbers drawn on Friday, June13, 2014, were 16, 18, 22, 28, and 46. The Lucky Stars were 9 and 11.

The Euromillions drawing on Tuesday, June 17, 2014, has an estimated jackpot of €15 million (£12 million). That's considerably smaller than Friday's prize, but as a starting jackpot it's pretty good. The jackpots for some games can rollover for 12 months or more without offering such a large prize.

The present Ohio Classic Lotto jackpot has an estimated jackpot of $73.3 million (€54,139,380), but even with three rollovers a week, it has taken over two years for the pot to grow so large. A Euromillions jackpot of that size can typically be achieved in five to six weeks.

Friday, June 13, 2014

An organization working with young people in Belfast, Ireland, has received £6,500 from the Big Lottery Fund's Awards for All Programme.

The Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum will use the money to fund a summer fun day organized by youngsters from their "Let Youth Lead" project.

The Forum hopes to involvement in the project will encourage young people to transform their aspirations into lifelong success.

The family fun day will take place in Belfast's Waterworks Park on July 12, 2014.

Karen Rice, outreach and detached youth development worker for Let Youth Lead, said: "We don’t have a youth center in the area so for us it’s really important to get out on the street, engaging with young people and encouraging them to get involved in positive activities and learn new skills."

Rice said involvement with the project allows youngsters to gain valuable communication, organizational, and team-building skills as well as providing them with a chance to do something positive for the local community.

"From previous community events we’ve done you can see the sense of pride from the young people who have helped organize the events," Rice explained. "The young people are becoming role models to the younger ones who ask ‘When can I do that? When can I help out?'"

One such role model, Paul McMenamy, 18, had his to say: "I don’t have any extra-curricular activities in school so being involved in the club has really helped with my CV and application to university and kept me from just running about the streets."

The Big Lottery distributes 40% of the money the National Lottery sets aside for good causes. The money is used to provide assistance to community groups and projects that are believed to have a positive impact on health, education, and the environment.

Executives at the New Zealand Lotteries Commission faced somewhat of a dilemma when it was discovered lotto tickets printed on supermarket till receipt paper are not as durable as tickets printed in the traditional way. The lottery conducted a business case study to ascertain the extent of the problem and decided it did not provide sufficient reason to cancel the recent implementation of ticket sales from supermarkets checkouts at Countdown stores.

Board members were told: "The till paper does wear more rapidly; this shows as deterioration on the edges of the paper."

The lottery combatted the problem by using a shorter barcode and ensuring critical information is located at the center of the ticket to allow a 'buffer zone' around the edges.

After an initial trial at 11 Countdown stores, the lottery began expanding the availability of "fastlane" ticket sales earlier this year. The option is now available in over 100 Countdown stores.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

A group of 26 current and former employees of the Canada Revenue Agency dropped by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) on Tuesday to claim the CAD$ 32.7 million jackpot prize from the Friday, June 6, 2014, Canada Lotto Max drawing.

Group leader Philippe Bussière said: "It's been a crazy weekend of talking to the group, convincing them this win was not a joke. I heard a lot of joyous screaming on the phone."

Fourteen group members will each receive a CAD$ 1.6 million share of the winnings. The other twelve members shared tickets so they will receive about CAD$ 800,000 each.

Plans for the money include paying off bills and going on vacations, but none of the group intends to take an early retirement.

There was no UK National Lottery Lotto rollover last night. One lucky player matched all six numbers drawn and scooped the £2.1 million jackpot.

Last night's winning lotto numbers were 11, 13, 14, 28, 40, and 42. The bonus number was 48.

Two players matched five winning numbers and the bonus ball, to win second tier prizes of £85,763, and 93 ticket-holders won £1,565 for matching five numbers. A further £4,205,522 was distributed in smaller prizes to lower tier winners.

UK National Lottery Lotto drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Saturday, June 14, 2014, Lotto drawing has an estimated jackpot of £4.2 million.

After four years without a job, a down-and-out Californian spent his 39th birthday diving in an out of a dumpster and was rewarded with a $500 prize.

When Lorenzo Juarez visited Orlando's Market in downtown Stockton on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, all he wanted was a bottle of water. With no job, little hope of finding one, and still nursing the recent scars of a relationship breakdown, Juarez was at low ebb.

Jurarez got a birthday surprise when a customer in front of him got in an altercation with the store clerk, lost his temper and let rip, destroying his winning California Lottery scratch-off ticket.

Explaining the events to a reporter from KCRA3 News, Juarez said: "The guy insulted him and said do you know what I think of you and your store—and ripped it up—'I don't need the money.'"

Minutes later Juarez was dumpster-diving in search of the ruined ticket.

"People started staring at me," Juarez said, "and I was like I've got nothing left to lose—four years of bad luck—and it came together today."

When Juarez returned to the store, nursing the pieces of ticket, the clerk told him all he needed was the barcode from the back of the ticket and the corresponding numbers from the front. Juarez had the necessary pieces in hand so the clerk typed them into the machine and counted out $5oo.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Four pizza parlor workers are slicing up a large US Powerball prize and splitting it into four equal portions.

The group, who work at Rocky's New York Pizza in Cascade, Maryland, all pitched in and bought seven tickets for the Saturday, June 7, 2014, drawing. One of the tickets matched all five numbers and delivered them a second tier win of $1 million.

Marianna Parascandolo, Francesco Infantino, Rocky DiCola, and Brandon Dougan claimed their prize on Monday and Dicola admitted to feeling little the worse for wear due to Dougan getting a somewhat carried away when he gave him the good news.

"He picked me up and bear-hugged me and swung me around like a ragdoll," DiCola explained. "My back's a little out of place, but it's OK, because I've got some money now to fix my back."

The lottery is a numbers game and, after many years of playing the game, sixty-five-year-old Jeff Carter from Iowa was rewarded for his dedication when he scooped a $10,000 US Powerball win on Wednesday, June 4, 2014.

"This is the first time I've won over four bucks," Carter told lottery staff when he claimed his prize last Thursday.

Carter won his third tier prize for matching four main numbers and the Powerball .

"I was really shocked when I looked at that," Carter admitted, when he handed over his ticket. "And then of course you're thinking, 'Why couldn't that other number be there?'"

If carter had got the other number he would have snagged the $196 million jackpot.

Carter intends to use his winning to replace the roof of his house.

The Wednesday June 11, Powerball drawing is just hours away and what a difference a week has made. The estimated jackpot has grown to $257 million.

The Ohio Classic Lotto drawing also takes place tonight. The estimated Jackpot is $73.1 million. That's a small prize by Powerball standards, but it's a considerable chunk of cash for the Classic Lotto. The jackpot hasn't been won since the December 7, 2011, drawing when one player matched all six numbers and picked up a $2.7 million reward.

Ohio Classic Lotto drawings take place every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday; so a lot of rollovers were required to push the prize up to its present level and the Ohio Lottery has no explanation why the jackpot has evaded players for so long.

Nobody managed to match the five main numbers and two Lucky Stars required to snag Tuesday's massive €118,626,756 Euromillions jackpot, but nine players secured second tier prizes of €195,840 for matching five numbers and one Lucky star.

Fourteen ticket-holders came up short on Lucky stars, but matched the five main numbers to win third tier prizes of €41,965.

Sixty-one players won €4,815.70 for matching four main numbers and two lucky stars, and a further 2,992,723 Euromillions players were awarded smaller prizes from the lower tiers.

The next Euromillions drawing is on Friday, June 13, 2014, and it's a big one because the estimated jackpot is €135 million (£109 million).

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Last year Amanda Ruddock got busy scratching a UK National Lottery scratchcard and scooped a £1 million prize. This year she and her husband Carl are busy scooping up sandwich fillings because rather than blow the winnings on a luxury lifestyle they decided to invest in a sandwich shop.

In a recent interview with The Press The Huntington couple said they felt it was important to set an example for their four children.

"We want to show our children that you still have to earn money," Carl explained.

Prior to their unexpected influx of lottery cash, Amanda worked as cleaner while Carl busied himself driving forklift trucks at the Nestle chocolate factory in York. Working side by side at Albert's Butties, on York's Monkton Road, the couple gets to see a lot more of each other these days, but admit they get stressed from time to time because their money worries are far from being over.

"It's a big responsibility to be in charge of that much money and to try to make it last you for the rest of your life," Amanda said.

Not all lottery winners succeed in making their lottery winnings last the rest of their lives.

In 2002, bin man Michael Carroll picked up a sizeable amount of cash when he won £9.7 million playing the National Lottery. By 2006 Carroll was already rumored to be broke and recently had a brief spell living in a hostel for the homeless after he lost his job packing boxes in a Scottish biscuit factory.

The UK National Lottery's Big Lottery Fund has awarded a grant of £499,078 to the Leys Community Development Initiative (CDI).

A past recipient of lottery funding, the charity develops and co-ordinates projects that will be of long-term benefit to residents living in the Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys estates in Oxford.

The fresh funds will be used to support the CDI's Youth Project.

The Youth project helps children and young people from the community to explore and develop new skills and allows them to participate in 'youth-led' social and community engagement programmes.

Speaking of the new funding, Chairman of the charity’s trustees, David Truesdale said: "This secures us a future for a while. We have always been hand to mouth. We will still have to fundraise, but it’s different now."

The Big Lottery Fund distributes 40% of the money the UK National Lottery sets aside for good causes. The money is used to provide assistance to community groups and projects that are believed to have a positive impact on health, education, and the environment.

It's an exciting time for US Powerball players. The jackpot keeps growing ever larger and, after thirteen weeks without a big-money prize-winner, the upcoming drawing on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, has an estimated top prize of $257 million.

Not surprisingly the sizable jackpot has resulted in a growth of interest from Powerball players. There were 28,625,977 tickets sold for Saturday’s Powerballl drawing. Ticket sales haven't been so high since the mammoth $425 million jackpot available for the drawing on February 19, 2014, caused a Powerball ticket buying frenzy.

The US Powerball is a multi-state draw that offers a minimum jackpot of $40 million. Numbers are drawn on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 22:59 (EST).

Monday, June 9, 2014

Ireland's latest Lotto millionaires visited the National Lottery headquarters in Dublin on Friday and claimed their €12.1 million prize.

The prize was claimed by couple from County Donegal. The winners have opted to remain anonymous, but the lottery said the couple was "on cloud nine".

The couple purchased their jackpot-winning Quick Pick ticket from the American House newsagents and gift shop on Main Street in Bundoran, just hours before the Wednesday, June 4, 2014, draw.

The lottery rang store owner Brian McGovern at 06:00 the following morning to inform him his store had sold a winning ticket and McGovern was so delighted he rang his staff and asked them to come in early to help inflate the celebratory balloons and decorate the shop.

This isn't the first time the store has sold a major prize-winning ticket. Local man Frankie O’Gorman purchased a ticket that scooped him part of a shared jackpot in 1989.

Last Saturday's Irish Lotto drawing failed to produce any big winners. The largest prizes were claimed by the 29 third tier winners who matched 5 winning numbers to secure prizes of €2,197 each.

The next Irish Lotto drawing is on Tuesday, June 10, 2014. The Estimated jackpot is €2.5 million.

The next Euromillons drawing also takes place on Tuesday night and offers players the chance of richer pickings because the estimated jackpot is €118 million (£95 million).

Speaking in a recent interview with the Daily Telegraph, Camelot's chief executive Dianne Thompson suggested the UK National Lottery draws have probably produced more millionaires than it appears.

"Directly, we've made about 4,500 millionaires," Thompson said and then went on to say Camelot believes UK National Lottery prizes have probably made around 10,000 UK millionaires because big prize winners tend to share the money around.

But Thompson warns that winners should avoid making rash decisions.

"Don’t make any promises to start with," she said. "It’s all too easy to say 'I’ll give you some, I'll give you some, I'll give you some.' You need to take time and think about it."

Her final advice for new lottery winners came with a smile. "Enjoy it," she said, "Please enjoy it."

With a Jackpot of NZD$ 26.4 million, Saturday's New Zealand Powerball drawing offered one of the largest prizes in the history of the game. To win the jackpot players need to match the six main numbers and the Powerball. Thirteen drawings came and went without a single player managing to achieve this; then on Saturday two players picked the same winning numbers.

One winning ticket was bought from the Pak 'n' Save supermarket in Hastings, the other from the Kumeu Four Square store in West Auckland. Each lucky ticket-holder will receive NZD$ 13,216,607.

The wining New Zealand Powerball Numbers drawn on Saturday, June 9, 2014, were 2, 4, 7, 27, 32, and 33. The Bonus Ball was 05 and the Powerball was 03.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

When an Australian Lotto player walked past his local newsagents last week, and saw a sign stating a ticket sold at the store had scooped a Division 1 win in the Saturday Lotto, the man thought 'wouldn't that be nice'. He never dreamed the sign might refer to his ticket, so he got quite a shock when the lottery rang and gave him the good news.

"Are you kidding me?" he asked. "Blimey, I’ve cracked the big one."

The man has opted to remain anonymous, but the lottery states he is 60-years-old and lives in the Australian Capital Territory. He was one of six players who matched the six winning numbers on Saturday, May 31, 2014. The Division 1 prize that night was AUD$ 4.1. Each winner received AUD$ 687,000.

The man has no fixed plans for the money, but sees the win as a blessing.

"I know the prize money will remove some of my stress and I’ll take a much-needed holiday down the track," he said.

Six tickets matched the six winning numbers in the UK National Lottery Lotto drawing on Saturday, June 8, 2014; so the £4.8 million Lotto jackpot will be split six ways. Each ticket-holder will receive £799,255.

The winning lotto numbers were 05, 10, 16, 23, 31, and 44. The bonus number was 37.

Seventeen players matched five winning numbers and the bonus ball to win second tier prizes of £15,117 each, and 551 players won £396 for matching five numbers. A further £10,312,817 was distributed in smaller prizes to lower tier winners.

UK National Lottery Lotto drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Wednesday, June 11, 2014, Lotto drawing has an estimated jackpot of £2.2 million.

A couple from Brampton, Ontario, visited the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) headquarters earlier this week to claim the CAD$ 50 million prize they nearly lost.

Hakeem Nosiru matched all seven winning numbers in the Canada Lotto Max drawing on January 17, 2014. Fearful of losing the ticket he asked his wife Abiola for her purse and taped the ticket to its lining.

The day before they were due to claim their prize the couple visited their local church and realized they'd lost the ticket after all.

The couple tore their home apart looking for the ticket, and even sorted through their trash, but failed to find it.

The Nosirus were miraculously reunited with their ticket on April Fool's Day when a member of the congregation found it inside the church, saw their name written on the back of the ticket, and returned it to them.

Although the ticket was back in hand, claiming the prize still proved to be difficult. Ontario Provincial Police had been alerted to the loss of the ticket and were investigating the matter for the OLG.

The Nosirus finally picked up their prize on Monday, June 2. Speaking about the moment she realized the ticket was gone from her purse, Abiola said, "I had a fly in my stomach and I couldn’t sleep for days. I couldn’t eat. I was devastated."

The next Canada Lotto Max drawing is on Friday, June 13, 2014. The estimated jackpot is CAD$ 10 million.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Two lucky ticket holders will each receive $1 million for matching the five US Mega Millions numbers on Friday June 6, 2014. To win the $45 million jackpot the Mega Ball would have been required as well.

Twenty-one ticket-holders won $5,000 for matching four numbers and the Mega Ball. None of them added the Megaplier option. If any of them had done so they would have won $20,000 because Friday's Megaplier number was 4.

A further 1.204,512 players were awarded smaller prizes from the lower tiers.

The next Mega Millions drawing will be held on Tuesday, June 10, 2014. The estimated jackpot is $55 million

The Pennsylvania police officer who won a $1 million US Powerball prize on May 24, 2014, became a local topic of conversation for a second time in a matter of days when he was removed from Rankin Police Department's work schedule due to his wife's alleged involvement in a prostitution business.

Defense attorney David Shrager states Officer Matthew Brown and his wife Jennifer have not done anything wrong.

The allegations relate to a criminal complaint filed in January 2014, by Moon Township Detective Charles Carr.

Detective Carr states he and other members of the FBI Human Trafficking Task Force were investigating the business because it was posting on a website known to be frequented by prostitutes looking for work.

According to the complaint, undercover officers contacted women via the business and discovered they were willing to have sex for money. The complaint also states one employee of the business said Jennifer Brown scheduled their appointments. Other employees claimed Officer Brown sometimes worked as a driver and said it was not unusual for drivers and female employees to meet at the Brown's Home.

In reference to the allegations made about Jennifer Brown, Schrager said: "It's our position that there is no evidence of her committing these crimes."

Officer Brown has not been charged.

Just days after praising Brown in an interview relating to his Powerball win, Rankin Police Chief Ryan Wooten has confirmed Brown has been taken off the work schedule until he and the borough council can decide on the best course of action.

There was a tenth Euromillions rollover last night so the big-money prize will have to be saved for another day.

Five main numbers and two lucky stars would have been required to scoop the £86.8 million jackpot. Four players came pretty close, but were a Lucky Star short so will have to settle for second tier prizes of £476,502.

Nineteen players won third tier prizes of £33,438 for matching the five main numbers, and a further 4,041,874 players were awarded smaller prizes from the lower tiers.

The next Euromillions drawing is on Tuesday, June 10, 2014. The estimated jackpot is £95 million (€118 million).

Friday, June 6, 2014

A golf fanatic from Aberdeenshire in Scotland is gradually getting back in the swing of things now he's had a few days to come to terms with a sudden influx of cash, courtesy of the Tuesday, May 27, Euromillions draw.

Small-business owner Brian Warrender, 55, won £136,065 for matching five numbers and one Lucky Star.

The win was doubly fortuitous because Warrender is not a regular Euromillions player and only bought his Lucky Dip ticket when he saw a poster in a Co-op store and noticed the jackpot was particularly large.

"I don't play EuroMillions regularly but when I saw the poster I thought I should take a chance and bought a couple of lucky dip tickets," Warrender said. He discovered the unplanned dip in his wallet was a winning decision when he turned on his TV, the morning after the draw, and checked the winning numbers.

"I didn't have my glasses on and at first I thought the 26 was a 28. I was over the moon when I realized it was actually a 26—my number," Warrender said.

Now he has a little extra cash sitting in the bank he hopes to indulge his golfing passion more often, but although a little extra clubbing may be on the agenda, he has no plans to be to extravagant or go overboard.

"I play club golf most weekends so the win will allow me to indulge in my hobby a little," Warrender said, "however, the main thing I will be doing with my win is putting it towards buying a house."

The Friday night Euromillions drawing is just hours away and with a jackpot of €105 million (£85 million) up for grabs there may be a few more players than normal.

Tonight's jackpot has been pumped up by nine rollovers, but Friday, June 6, 2014, was always going to be a big night for Euromillions players because a Euromillions Superdraw was scheduled several weeks ago.

Superdraws offer a guaranteed €100 million jackpot, but the normal jackpot already surpasses the scheduled jackpot so the Superdraw has been cancelled. This is the first time a Euromillions Superdraw has had to be postponed for this reason.

The money that would have been used for the Superdraw will remain in the Euromillions Reserve Fund and be used for future draws and promotions.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

A 72-year-old pensioner from Dagenham, East London, who was recently targeted by lottery scam artists failed to be fooled by the tricksters, but is worried that others may not be so lucky.

"It’s more than likely they target old people, hoping they won’t be as street savvy," Barry Watson said. "I think the people who set up these scams are the lowest form of filth. They’re lower than slugs."

Watson smelt a rat as soon as he opened up the bogus mailing that claimed to be from the Euro Millions International Postcode Lottery and stated he had won £700,000.

"My daughter is in the police force and has warned me about these scams in the past so I want to raise awareness too because I don’t want any poor person losing all of their money," Watson said.

After the initial rich promises the letter requested Watson send his full bank details to Waterloo Finance House in Manchester so that payment could be arranged.

Watson was already familiar with this kind of set-up. His email inbox used to receive a regular influx of mailings from Nigerian scammers. Being targeted via the Royal Mail was a new experience for the savvy pensioner and it was not to his liking.

“It’s even more scary and shocking receiving something like this in the post as opposed to it being via an email," he said.

Genuine lotteries do not contact people in this manner and would never request bank details and other personal information. Anyone who thinks they have been targeted in this way should call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

No tickets matched the six main numbers required to win the £2.5 million jackpot in the UK National Lottery Lotto drawing on Wednesday, May 4, 2014, so the draw ended in a rollover.

The main numbers drawn were 14, 19, 30, 31, 47, and 48. The bonus number was 16.

Three players matched five winning numbers and the bonus ball, to win second tier prize of £68,529, and 78 ticket-holders won £2,237 for matching five numbers. A further £3,791,526 was distributed in smaller prizes to lower tier winners.

UK National Lottery Lotto drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Saturday, May 7, 2014 drawing has an estimated jackpot of £6 million.